The Consultative Institute for Socio- Economic Development of Rural and Mountainous Areas (CISDOMA) recently has won the competitive bid for the Consultancy package “Auditing of Enterprises/Restaurants for Good Practices for Food Safety Handling and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and Postharvest Handling.” This is a part of the Trade Facilitation “Improved Sanitary and Phytosanitary Handling of Greater Mekong Sub Region Trade” project.

Currently, in Laos and neighboring ASEAN countries, tourism remains a rapidly growing sector. It is accompanied by the rise of food handling enterprises and hotels/ restaurants serving the public. However, there’s still a large gap between desirable standards and current status for food safety at these establishments. Further, the information system and standards for food safety monitoring and auditing, as well as post-harvest handling remains incomplete.

The Trade Facilitation “Improved Sanitary and Phytosanitary Handling of Greater Mekong Sub Region Trade” project is funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to strengthen food management capacity for the Greater Mekong sub-region countries, including Laos.
In this project, CISDOMA acts as lead joint venture, providing consultancy service on Auditing of Enterprises/Restaurants for Good Practices for Food Safety Handling and GMP and Postharvest Handling with the following objectives:

  • Promote application of food safety management system and develop grading system for restaurants and related food enterprises; and
  • Improve the system for independent certification of good practice in post-harvest handling and GAP for promoting exports of corn and rice.

The project will be implemented over a 14-month period (from October, 2016 to December, 2017). CISDOMA will partner with Lao Asie Consultants Group, Laos Departments of Planning and Cooperation, Laos Plant Protection Center and Laos Department of Food and Drugs to implement audit training courses and provide guidance, including methods and tools for auditing and application of good practices in post-harvest handling, for Laos’ authorities and food auditors.

The auditing will be conducted in 40 post-harvest handling enterprises, 100 food processing enterprises and 260 restaurants to promote the application of Good Practices for Food Safety Handling, GMP and Postharvest Handling. This project is expected to strongly enhance food safety handling capacities of food enterprises in the Lao PDR tourist industry.